A short and informal dissertation about why this blog tends to focus on the bright sides of Roanoke.

As readership of this blog has increased modestly over the past several months I have become more and more conscientious about what I post. I don’t mean that I censor myself or place restrictions on what topics to post about. But, I mean that I genuinely try to provide thoughts, pictures, and overall hopefully enjoyable insight into a few of the many aspects that make Roanoke unique.

Long-time and new readers alike can proabably pretty easily observe that as a whole Noke News tends to focus on positive aspects of Roanoke. I suppose this came about naturally. I live here, as do many of you, and it makes sense to me that I should write more about the pluses, and not so much about the minuses. If I wrote too much about the minuses this site would actually seem to me to be a series of reasons to move away.

And that’s certainly not how I feel and it’s not the message I want to convey.

Now, I know Roanoke does have its share of crime, hot-button issues, crooked politicians (or just plain irresponsible ones), poverty, and other unpleasantries.
 
Those negatives exist without question, but in large part I’ve choosen not to put them in the limelight or give them publicity on this site.

Why?

Well, it’s not because I don’t have a personal opinion on a particular matter.  The answer is simply because I sometimes find that Roanoke is victim to a bit too much negativity already. And I believe there are many other unique and favorable aspects about this great city that are more deserving of the limelight.

From a greenway down by the river, to a quaint park with paths made out of pebbles and small boulders for sitting, to a meaningful memorial at the top of the mountain, there really is a lot of neat stuff around Roanoke.  Even now in looking back at the over 120 articles posted here I’ve only scratched the surface in mentioning just a handful of them.

But, to me all of this stuff deserves a place at the front of the line (or on the front page) every now and then. And I’m here to put it there.

In other words, I think being positive about Roanoke can be contagious and I hope to pass it on.